Sporting Legends to judge 15th Cross Sports Book Awards

An elite collection of legends from the world of sport and sports journalism will adjudicate the 15th Cross Sports Book Awards, including rowing Olympic Gold medallist; Dame Katherine Grainger, English Rugby World Cup winning Captain; Martin Johnson and Racing’s National Hunt Champion trainer; Paul Nicholls. Each join other famous sporting names across a selection of independent judging panels for each of the 9 categories at the 2017 Cross Sports Book Awards which take place on May 24th at Lord’s Cricket Ground in a ceremony filmed for Sky Sports TV Broadcasting.

The Cross Sports Autobiography of the year award panel of judges chaired by, the winner from 2011, former England hooker; Brian Moore, will also feature Alison Kervin; sports editor of the Mail On Sunday, England and Middlesex batsman; Nick Compton and Guillem Balague, Sky Sports La Liga pundit, also a winner at last year’s event for his Biography of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The panel’s experience and expertise cover a wide field in sport, broadcasting and journalism. The 6 judges will now have the tough decision of cutting down the 12 books on the longlist, which will become the shortlist. The Autobiography shortlist will be announced during late March, with all 8 other award category shortlists being revealed later, on 26th April.

Katherine Grainger, who is part of the best autobiography panel of judges for the first time said: “I’m thrilled to be a part of the Cross Sports Book Awards for the first time this year. It’s a fantastic campaign and ceremony. I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts with a stellar group of sporting stars and journalists.”

The awards full academy of judges in 2017 include; Cyclist; David Millar, broadcasters; Simon Brotherton and Jill Douglas presiding over the Cycling Book of the Year award; Bob Willis, Paul Allot and Isa Guha judging the Cricket Book of the Year and a host of former sportsmen, broadcasters and journalists including; Danny Mills, Dave Flatman, Clare Tomlinson, Annie Vernon, Jacquie Beltrao and Patrick Barclay.

David Willis, Chairman of the Cross Sports Book Awards added: “I am delighted to see that we have secured such a well-respected group of judges to help us celebrate 15 years of the book awards. Our esteemed panels now have an extremely difficult task to choose their winners to be announced at our awards dinner on 24th May at Lord’s the Home of Cricket”